NDA will not bring no confidence motion against UPA: Sharad Yadav

Patna: NDA will not bring a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the UPA government to force it to prove its majority following the withdrawal of support by Trinamool Congress in view of its 2008 experience, NDA convenor Sharad Yadav said today.

"We have no plans to bring no-confidence motion in Parliament against the UPA," he told reporters here. Yadav said NDA was opposed to dislodging the UPA government from power by 'hook or crook' on the issue of 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail and added that it was for UPA government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide whether they wanted to go for fresh parliamentary polls or complete the remainder of its tenure "on crutches".

Sharad Yadav.

"In any case, the next general elections were not very far away," the JD(U) leader said. Yadav, however, said he would attend TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's political programme at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi tomorrow.

"We had burnt our fingers earlier (on trust vote) and do not want a repeat of the same," he said referring to the UPA-1 government winning a confidence motion in 2008 after the Left Front withdrew support following the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Slamming the UPA government for allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, Yadav said it would jeopardise livelihood of 95 per cent of retail traders in the country.

The opposition, he said, would like to use people's power to defeat the ruling coalition at the centre in the next general elections."We will ensure that people like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia do not come to power again," he said.

He castigated UPA government's defence of FDI in multi-brand retail and other policy decisions to push economic reforms. "If indeed the reforms have strengthened the Indian economy then how come the industrial production has gone down and the growth target is capped at five per cent ?" he asked.

He also asked the Centre to explain reasons for growing fiscal and revenue deficits and decline in forex reserves. The NDA convenor lashed out at the UPA government for "presiding over rampant corruption and loot of national resources" and at the same time seeking to justify economic reforms that 'hit the masses'.

He described as 'unfortunate' Supreme Court's recent ruling that auctions were not the only permissible method for disposal of natural resources across sectors in reference to the Presidential reference on the 2G allocations.

"I beg to differ with the Supreme Court verdict on the method of allocation of natural resources." Yadav also demanded strong action by Congress and the UPA government against ministers and MPs whose names surfaced in coal blocks allocation irregularities.

Yadav said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should crack the whip against the tainted ministers and MPs and not wait for the court verdict. In this context, the NDA convenor said he and BJP leader L K Advani had resigned as MPs after their names cropped up in the hawala scam two decades ago.

Yadav, who has been playing a crucial role in bringing all opposition parties on board in crusade against the FDI in retail, slammed civil right workers for branding all parliamentarians as corrupt on the basis of reports about 162 MPs facing serious criminal charges.

The critics should see that about 400 other MPs have clean track records. The campaign to malign Parliament, its members and politicians in general should stop at once as all persons in public life were not criminals or corrupts, Yadav said adding political and constitutional institutions must be respected to strengthen parliamentary democracy in the country.

On the political situation in Bihar where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is facing protests during his 'Adhikar Yatra' to solicit support from people on the special category status demand, Yadav said he was driven by a mission to ensure development and prosperity of the state.